We have the privelege of having a young man from the Ukraine come and stay with us for part of the summer. We felt led to participate in a host program and are really enjoying our visitor.
His name is Valera and he LOVES to ride bikes and play computer games. Oh, and cars, he LOVES cars. Not just any cars mind you, oh no. He loves the cool and expensive cars. Like the Mustangs, Camaros, BMW's, Corvettes, etc.



"Welcome Valera"

He is very handy, he loves to take things apart and put them back together or try to fix them. He's also smart and is picking up English very quickly. He already knew some, but is learning more and wants to learn the English letters. He printed out Russian letters and has taped them onto our keyboard to the corresponding English letter. Pretty cool. He's not too into American Football, yet. But he's got some soccer skills!

He is also very helpful and kind. He helps the Littles if they need it and likes to carry the baby in her car seat.

We're hoping to take him to DC while he is here. I asked him if there was anything in America that he wanted to see or do specifically. He said no. Ok, I can work with that!

Tom got to meet Valera thru skype. Valera was a little shy, but liked meeting "Father". :)

More updates to come......

Ethan, Valera and Vitaly in the boys room.

Vitaly really likes having Valera here.

I need my coffee........ok, got it. Now, to get on with the updates.  Baby Liberty (or Libby) is going great! She is one month old now and totally spoiled, but that's a good thing. :) Eventhough she's only been "out" a short time, I can't imagine our family without her. She's quite a blessing. She is holding her head up and looking around and loves to be in the middle of everything. The other day she was crying (which doesn't last too long because someone will pick her up) and prompty stopped and fell asleep when I started vaccuming. I know what you're thinking, that's a good baby. :) She also misses her Daddy, but we're Skyping with him so she gets to see him on the computer. Not to mention ALL of the pictures of him around and the fact that we talk about Daddy ALL the time.


Liberty Belle, 1  month

Leanore made this comment the other day: "No fair, you hog all the cute ones." to Phoebe in regards to their younger siblings.  So as you can see, that statement is not entirely true. Everyone is getting to love on Libby Belle.

Leanore w/Libby

Daddy smooching Libby

Holly and Libby



Big sister Trudy w/Libby

Big brother Vitaly w/Libby

The only one not pictured with Libby is Alina. That's because she didn't want anything to do with her for the first few weeks, so we didn't push it. Now she can sit next to her (as long as Libby's not crying) and be ok. We know she loves Libby, she just might not know it yet. :)

We miss you and love you Daddy!